


Once Upon a Twitcam

by rubycrowned



Series: In Your Skin [2]
Category: 1D - Fandom, One Direction, One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, larry stylinson - Freeform, lourry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-05
Updated: 2012-09-05
Packaged: 2017-11-13 14:54:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/504707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubycrowned/pseuds/rubycrowned
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry wants to do a twitcam and it turns into a free-for-all. Surely nothing can go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Upon a Twitcam

**Author's Note:**

> Headcanon vomit after the twitcam of last week. Set in the same verse as In Your Skin. But can be read as a standalone. Un-beta'd and seriously just a spam of feels in fic form tbh.

Harry was supposed to be giving a twitcam.

Somehow, that had turned into the first group twitcam in a long time – Liam’s one, in America after their SNL performance, hardly counted at all, and even it had been over four months ago.

It wasn’t really a ‘somehow’ though. Louis knew how it’d happened; why it was happening.

The past month had been a whirlwind of Olympics and festivals, of couple-y photo-ops for both Liam and Danielle and for Louis and Eleanor. It had been Niall cheerfully going about his time in his usual laidback yet eager fashion.

It had been Harry seen out and about with friends who weren’t One Direction and ever close to Nick Grimshaw. New tattoos appearing nearly daily for a while there.

It had been Zayn hidden almost out of sight, fading at the edges. Deleting his twitter. His tether finally snapping after months of straining at the end of it, slowly fraying away. More new tattoos.

It had been a brief reprieve in the simple hilarity that was the filming of their new music video – the sun and the childish delight of playing in the water had brought out the best of them for a short time.

It had been Liam’s 19th birthday, which hadn’t been nearly as big of a shambles as it might have appeared to outsiders (not everything happens on twitter and at public events; Louis knows this more than most). But it had still been enough to shatter that illusion of happiness, both between themselves and for the fangirls, screeching their pain and confusion from their respective corners of the internet. Commiserations and accusations all round.

And then it had been Harry deciding that why not, how about he have a chat with the fans for a bit – they’d enjoy it, and maybe he could answer some of those questions they had. Obviously not some of the major ones, they would be ‘missed’, ‘unseen’ in the floods of comments and keysmashes bound to flood through to him.

But then it had been the tentative suggestion as the boys lounged in the hotel room that  _maybe Lou could come on for a couple minutes…they always loved it when we used to do that_. And Louis’ heart had leapt into his throat because he  _missed_ those days but also he could see just what a shit-show that would doubtless be; seeing Larry Stylinson together once more, alone at last, and wouldn’t they like to know…but Paul, seemingly oblivious as he played solitaire on his laptop in the corner saved Louis from the creeping, leeching cold that was freezing his limbs at the thought.

“How about you all do one?”

And it made sense because it had also been the lead up to the VMAs and they were supposed to be doing everything in their power to keep the votes streaming in. And they were all already there together anyway; the album cover announcement was to be happening in just a few hours and this would give both them and the fans something to do in the meantime.

The thought eased Louis’ pounding heart rate somewhat; this way he could still be there with Harry, something which had been happening with disappointing frequency lately, but the other lads were bound to take some of the brunt of the twitcam, sharing some of the pressure and increasing their ability to avoid the subject of Harry and Louis’ relationship.

***

By the time they’re ready and Niall and Liam have set up the video stream (Zayn was told to either sit in the corner so he didn’t jinx it, or to stand quietly by and  _for godssake pay attention this time, yeah?_ ) ‘Harry Twitcam’ has been trending worldwide for over an hour and if it were anyone other than their fans Louis would’ve expected them to have given up hope by now.

Paul had pulled some small figurine toys of them from who knows where and tossed them at the boys just as they were finishing getting ready; they’d be something to muck about with when they didn’t know what else to talk about.

Seeing as Harry had been the one to originally decide to do the twitcam, they let him start off with a thank you to the ridiculous number of people who had already pre-ordered Live While We’re Young (Louis didn’t think he’d ever get used to the way they continued to break all these records that they had never even dreamed of).

It quickly turns into a quick Happy Birthday run-down for Liam, and Louis thinks he really should set to rights one of the rumours that had been floating around – Zayn’s apparent avoidance of Liam’s birthday.

“You’ll be happy to know me and Zayn did try to call Liam on several occasions, but he never answered,” Louis attempts to explain, although the last part is a little cut off and over with Zayn’s own bemoans, which repeatedly refuse any kind of assurance from Liam that he had  _very good reasons_  for leaving them hanging. Louis has to admit, it still seems a little odd, the whole thing, but he’s finally torn into the packaging of Zayn’s doll and figures it’ll be a good change of topic. At least people are unlikely to suggest that Zayn doesn’t care about Liam after this, although Liam probably hasn’t stopped the rumour mill thanks to his comments (and maybe Louis doesn’t help with his own reference to the ‘Danielle’s going to feel the Payne’ trend comment, but it  _was_ pretty funny).

Zayn seems as eager to move on though as Louis, having succeeded in freeing Louis’ figurine. They all screw around with the dolls for a bit, putting on poor imitations of each other and pulling out just about every one of their over-referenced ‘catch-phrases’. Louis tries not to notice the way Harry sits by himself on the couch, or the way his phone is pulled out when Niall and Liam start discussing beards. Ignores the vibrate of his own phone in his pocket a moment later as he goes to take a seat back with Harry.

Then they decide to share the delightful and mostly pointless (therefore even more entertaining in Louis’ eyes) game of ‘Replay’, which the lads had taken to playing when they had hours upon hours of sitting around between run-throughs on the long days of recording and filming. Actually, Louis thinks he might have been the one who brought it up, if only in the hope that Harry might perk up at the memory of the game.

***

_“You know what?” Louis whispers confidentially into the warm space behind Harry’s ear, curls tickling his face._

_“Mmn,” Louis can tell Harry’s trying to focus on Louis’ words and not just the way his fingers have dipped down the back of Harry’s pants, caressing tantalisingly and distractingly close to his hole, “what, Lou?”_

_“I love you.”_

_The words are pressed in syllables along Harry’s neck and down to the shoulder hunched over home, leaning into the touches Louis brands him with all along his body. The_ no matter what I say outside these four walls, no matter how I act  _this_  is the truth  _hovers unspoken between them; in the gaps between their intertwined fingers and the catch in Harry’s breath._

_Harry ducks his head to meet Louis’ gaze and brings his lips close, barely brushing against Louis’. He murmurs into Louis’ mouth._

_“Replay.”_

_Their lips crush together as Louis pulls Harry across the final millimetres of distance, a messy, desperate tangle as both try and inhale the other, to retain some small piece of their partner for themselves._

_“I love you,” Louis gasps as they break apart for a moment, not even their level of determination can prevent the need for air eventually._

_Harry’s hips are grinding stuttering circles into Louis and his answering_ replay _is cut off by an aborted groan as Louis bucks back up into him._

_Louis flips them over, palming Harry’s hard length through his boxers as he leans over him, sucking a mark right over his heart._

_He glances up towards Harry’s staring eyes, still searching as he writhes beneath Louis’ touch._

_“I love you.”_

_Harry shudders beneath him, eyes finally rolling back as he comes undone, a haltingly sharp intake of breath the only noise he makes as Louis strokes him through his orgasm._

_Harry slides his own long fingers under the elastic of Louis’ pants, quickly jacking him off with smooth twists of his wrist until he spills over Harry’s knuckles._

_“You know I love you too, yeah? Always?” Harry asks in the peaceful quiet as they come down from the high, still tangled and messy._

_“Replay,” Louis sighs contentedly into Harry’s chest._

_“I love you, too. Always.”_

_“Replay.”_

_“Love you.”_

_Louis pushes himself up onto an elbow to stare at Harry’s face, unimpressed._

_“You know you actually suck at this game, right?”_

_But Louis’ eyes are sparkling and he presses a quick kiss to Harry’s collarbone, so Harry beams back and maybe Louis’ a little blinded by it._

***

He and Liam do a fairly piss poor explanation of Replay for the fans, but it makes Harry grin, just a little, and Louis rubs his thumb in circular motions into Harry’s knee while the camera angle is changed. When they move the laptop back to centre, Harry’s still looking a bit serious, but he speaks up a bit more and asks for some questions ( _not things we get asked all the time_ ).

There’s a slight scare with the stream failing for some viewers, but they manage to keep going. And the little dolls actually  _are_ pretty fun, so they mess around with those for quite a bit longer. Zayn grabs some of the tiny shampoo bottles from the hotel bathroom and starts making a right mess, which of course makes Louis leaps at the opportunity to have a bit of fun too, reminiscing about the trashing of the room last time they stayed somewhere similar – not that they needed to go into the  _particular_  details of that night with the fans. He keeps checking to see that Harry’s okay (it’s become his natural instinct and no matter what else goes on, he can’t seem to turn this part of him off).

Harry does go fairly quiet again as they start talking fondly of Australia (and Louis can’t help but be nostalgic for those moments; the last ones where they had really been free to just  _have fun_  – but then Wellington happened and all of a sudden the noose began to tighten). He manages to do a few shout-outs to people though and Louis tries to imagine that he’s having an alright time.

Louis’ still playing with his now decapitated doll’s head while he looks over Harry’s shoulder to read some of the twitter feed off of his phone and Niall hogs the webcam. His head shoots up though when he’s certain he hears Liam assuring the audience; _don’t be thinking anyone’s getting brave, coz there’s no bravery going on here_. Louis’ pretty sure his eyebrows must almost be shooting through his hairline at this point, and he’s trying not to scowl at Liam for such a statement. To be fair, Louis’ not  _entirely_  certain he did hear him right, but it sounded suspiciously like he had directed that at  _Larry and Zayn_  (although why Zayn, Louis had almost no clue). And bravery…it isn’t the most common fan-assigned token of their relationship, but #bravery is definitely something that could be seen every now and again in their mentions, no matter how much Louis tries to avoid them. He doesn’t understand Liam’s motivation, unless it was to get a rise out of one of them, but Louis just hopes that Niall was still blocking the shot of him when Liam was speaking.

Harry’s phone is out once again as Liam enthusiastically suggests a prank after a few ‘Hi’s have been made. Louis tries not to think about the way Zayn is kneading Liam’s knee off-camera (or the way it has ratcheted Liam’s activity levels up a couple more notches), instead focusing on his own phone, which had vibrated a second time against his thigh.

He ignores the first text message ( _Hows ur beard coming Lou?_ ) and reads the second one over a couple times before typing a quick ‘ _replay in 30? ;)’_  and sending it back to Harry, who is attempting to maintain some semblance of order in the twitcam, asking for more questions. It doesn’t really work but Louis finds a photo linked on twitter of Eleanor actually  _as_  Louis’ beard, and he can’t help releasing a little snort and leaning forward to show Harry, murmuring  _that’s how it’s doing apparently_  under his breath and Harry definitely smirks in response, so Louis takes what he can get.

There’s a bit of a fuss with the twitcam freezing again for some people, and they decide to try and restart it. It’s probably the quickest and most effective reset in their collective twitcam history, but it’s still long enough for Louis to ruffle Harry’s hair and press the briefest of kisses to somewhere between Harry’s cheekbone and the corner of his eye.

When the cam flickers back to life, it’s as though nothing had changed, besides Liam changing positions for something like the fifth time. They all seem a little more focused on the actual interaction with the fans on the other side of the cam again now, although Zayn has gone all heavy and leaning now that there isn’t a Liam for him to prod and squeeze. Louis can’t help but hope Zayn would come to chat with him sometime soon, because – while Zayn didn’t particularly like talking about whatever shit he was going through – _something_  was definitely up, and usually he’d wind up sharing a joint with Louis at some stage to talk it through.

Not that something doesn’t seem to be up with Liam tonight, too – he’s filled with some kind of nervous energy. Louis doesn’t quite understand it but it makes him frown ever so slightly when Liam all but tries to tell the entire world about what is  _supposed_  to be one of their big secrets for the new single; their new ‘dance’. None of them have ever really been able to stop laughing at their utter lack of coordination as a group, and the fact that they have been able to put together this new little number is nothing short of a miracle really.

Time’s passed fairly quickly, even though they haven’t really accomplished much (although how do you accomplish things in a twitcam exactly, Louis wonders), and they all have things they could be doing right now, like work (or cashing in that offer of Harry’s) so Liam calls a five minute warning for the end of the stream.

It finally boots Niall into action to get some of those questions done that Harry had been repeatedly suggesting for most of the twitcam – and he starts to rocket them off.

“Can we do a signing in Australia?”

Liam gives a generic answer that Louis mostly ignores.

“Louis,” okay now Louis’ head shoots up in preparation, for a question about Eleanor or carrots or- “can you just hug Harry?”

And just like that, Louis freezes. Is paralysed.

The chains around his chest and the cords at his throat pull tight and  _what am I supposed to do with that_?

Niall’s tone had had a slight chuckle in it and Louis isn’t sure if he wants to hug  _him_  right now or to chuck something at his head because if anyone had always believed in Louis and Harry – in Harry and Louis as well as HarryandLouis – it was Niall. But that doesn’t mean Louis wants him forcing their affection to be displayed all over the internet and probably beyond in a matter of minutes.

Louis just doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do here. Obviously he can’t just deny the request – that would look fishy as hell. And obviously, Louis’ instinct at most other times – out of view of cameras or in another time, another place ( _before_ ) – is to clamber all over Harry in a vice-like hug. Even to simply throw an arm around his shoulder and cuddle in a little. But now isn’t most other times. Clearly the Larry fans hadn’t completely disappeared into the woodwork, but management was finally happy with the way their relationship was being portrayed. Or, at least, they hadn’t called recently to tell them to tone it down and take your girlfriend out shopping again.

So he pastes on a smile and gives Harry the smallest of squeezes, not even fully encompassing his shoulders. For the slightest of seconds, Louis thinks it might have been the wrong move, that even though he tried to do what he’d been told, he’s probably made it only more awkward.

But then the other boys are busy cracking jokes (“ _Larry’s first hug_ ” yeah, okay, Louis might have to thump Niall in the arm later) and even Harry’s set off laughing after his own initial stiffness at the question.

Maybe no-one would notice.

And then Louis’ asked to speak some French and that’s a whole lot easier to deal with.

And then Zayn’s  _shoving_  Liam to the ground and starts whispering something in Harry’s ear, and then repeating it – breath hot and tickling as he laughs – into Louis’.

Okay, maybe Louis will have to be the one bringing the situation up with Zayn, but this should be interesting (and it’s been a while since Louis’ pulled a prank with his favourite mischief buddy).

Because Liam’s sat back down on the couch and Harry wraps his octopus limbs around him. Liam’s still not quite sure that anything’s wrong yet, but then Zayn stands up and he must see the glint in his eyes or something and he starts squirming.

It’s too late by now though and Louis wrestles with Liam’s legs as they manhandle Liam onto his back and slowly drag him to the ground; Zayn, inexplicably, trying to remove his clothes.

They get impressively far actually, although Liam will probably be thankful that Louis is  _pretty_ sure most of it was unseen by the online audience. And Louis will count it as a fair success, seeing as Paul considered it enough to move from his seat in the corner to break it up.

It’s all silent for a moment after that, each of them panting slightly at the short exertion while Liam sits on the ground with his tee still half off.

Then, “Did ya, Harry?”

“Did I what? Whaddya mean?”

“You got clamped.”

And this was  _far_ too good to be true; Louis can’t help but burst out laughing as he nearly screams out, “Harry got clamped!”

Because Harry was pretty chilled about most things, but he was  _anal_  when it came to that bloody Jeep of his, and Louis can’t believe he left it somewhere where he’d get clamped.

He’s all but forgotten that the twitcam’s even still running when he exclaims, thrilled, “Oh my  _god_ , darling.”

Disappointingly, in the commotion that follows, it comes out that it’s not  _his_  Harry whose car got clamped, but it still had them all going for a bit, so pretty decent all round.

The other lads start wrapping up the twitcam with some more thank-you’s and reminders to keep voting in the VMA polls, and Louis leaves Niall to it mostly, just throwing in his own farewell at the end.

And then it’s over and Liam’s calling him names and digging his fingers under Louis’ ribs for having been part of Zayn’s prank; which, for some reason, Liam seems to think was  _his_  fault.

“I love ya, Li, and you’re dead fit but, honestly, it’s only really Haz’s bum I care to see,” Louis insists, “Isn’t that right babes?”

“Better bloody hope so,” comes the response.

“Aw Harry, you know those curls of yours have had me all tangled up for years now,” Louis pouts up at Harry from his lap, from where he’d thrown himself, across Liam, in their play-fight.

“Hey guys, I’m starving,” Zayn draws out the words, “we have time for a food stop before we get back to it, yeah?”

“Uh, I might stay here, actually,” Louis replies, “I think Harry here was going to show me-”

“Ahah ahhh, no details, I don’t wanna know,” Niall’s thick accent cuts over top of Louis’ sentence, “I’m going to leave and get some food and you two are  _not_  going to ruin my appetite.”

“Because that is something that has happened before, right Ni?” Harry jokes up at the blonde.

“Well shove off then, Lou, if the rest of us are getting something to eat,” Louis definitely doesn’t squeal as Liam unceremoniously pushes Louis off his legs to the floor, “Well I couldn’t very well move if you’re lying all over me.”

“Liam Payne,” Louis’ voice is mock-horrified as he stares up at Liam, “I’ll never be able to look at you in the same way again.”

“Yeah, yeah. Come on lads.”

The three other boys file their way out the door once they’ve grabbed various jackets and phones lying about the room, closely followed by Paul, who gives Harry and Louis a significant look as he pulls the door shut behind them.

“Well,” Louis waggles his eyebrows, “shall we?”

***


End file.
